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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 7th Jun 2009 at 4:32 PM Last edited by Nukael : 7th Jun 2009 at 7:53 PM.
Default Homemade Skin Overlay; shouldn't this work? *FIXED*
So, inspired by HystericalParoxysm I set about creating my own skin overlays for my male population of Sims.

EDIT: So I figured out what I was doing wrong! When I created the packages with S3PIDemoFE, I put in the type, group and instance values that Echo's Postal gave me, but I noticed that these were different values. So I opened up the original HystericalParoxysm packages in S3PIDemoFE, copied those values into the new package and now they work. My very first skin overlay, yay! After a day and a half of grumbling
Now to really make my own skin overlay, because for this test I basically just copy/pasted a skin from The Sims 2.


These are the steps I took:

1. I grabbed the dark and light overlays for the males from HystericalParoxysm

2. Used Echo's Postal to check the type, group and instance number of those overlays and copied these values to notepad. EDIT: Here's where I went wrong, because I built the new packages with S3PIDemoFE, I needed to check these values with that and not Postal.

3. Then used S3PIDemoFE (because Postal is a bit iffy still with DDS textures) to extract the DDS contained in HystericalParoxysm's packages to use as a reference.

4. Opened up the DDS in Photoshop (with the Nvidia plugins), edited the skin overlay, and saved it again as a DDS DXT3, building new Mipmaps (10 to be exact). I did the same for both light and dark overlays.

5. I then created a new package with S3PIDemoFE, importing the DDS and making sure that the Type, Group and Instance were the same as those of HystericalParoxysm. I made a seperate package for the light overlay, and a separate one for the dark overlay (so they're not in the same package).

6. Double checked the packages with Postal's preview ability to check if the DDS textures were correctly saved.

7. Put the package files in the Mods\Packages folder.

8. Booted up the game, went into CAS and... nothing. Zip, nada. Still the default overlays.

So, by all logical reasoning, I think my working method should make these skin overlays show up in the game, right? Only they're not, hmm.

Huge thank you for reading and answering and of course to HystericalParoxysm for figuring out how to create skin overlays in the first place!

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Warrior Gryphon
site owner
#2 Old 7th Jun 2009 at 4:52 PM
Can you upload one of your packages someplace? Also, do you have any of HPs default skin replacements in?

Story books are full of fairy tales, of Kings and Queens, and the bluest skies.
Instructor
Original Poster
#3 Old 7th Jun 2009 at 7:56 PM
Thanks very much for offering your help, Delphy. It seems I figured it out on my own, I've edited the first post to show what I did wrong.

It's in the little things that these mistakes creep in, I guess. Well, we're still in the early modding days! How exciting!

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Test Subject
#4 Old 8th Jun 2009 at 7:22 PM Last edited by yams : 8th Jun 2009 at 7:31 PM. Reason: to fix stupidity errors
Ok I'm kind of stumped here. I was trying to do what you did before I even found this post, but completely through Postal. After I found this I tried S3PIDemoFE and I get the same result. I export the .dds just fine, check it out in gimp with the .dds plugin, make a big dark M on the chest to just see if it works, then I save it, click generate mipmap, and import it into a new package file, then change the type, group and instance back to what I got when I first loaded the files.

But when I preview in Postal the DDS image is a gray scale thing with lines up and down it like a TV getting poor reception.

Any ideas what I am doing wrong? Does this ONLY work with photoshop at the moment for whatever reason? I thought I would piggyback off of your thread since you seem to have fixed your problem.

Thank you.
Tentacle Of Righteousness
#5 Old 9th Jun 2009 at 12:52 PM
HP:
I get the same thing as yams...greyscale pic when i view it with postal.(when trying to do my own) what's the process if we use s3pi and or postal?

Alt 255
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned
to a dead channel.
Test Subject
#6 Old 9th Jun 2009 at 6:44 PM
I couldn't get it to work with Postal for the life of me, but I got it working using S3PI. You just have to open up HystericalParoxysm's skin mod in S3PI, write down the numbers for type, group, and instance, then create a new .package from the file menu. Click on Import under file, choose the .dds texture you've created, and it will pop up a box that asks for type, group, and instance numbers so enter them. Then you just have to save it as a .package.

I also have better luck if I export the .dds from HP's .package using S3PI instead of Postal. You just have to go to export and save it as binary, then rename it so it has a .dds extension.

I have to say though, I never would have figured it out without this thread!
Instructor
Original Poster
#7 Old 12th Jun 2009 at 11:03 AM
That's right, don't use Postal yet for any modifying of textures, it seems to mess them up somewhere.
Export the textures with S3PI (just change the file extension do .dds when saving). Then do what Ender13 and I did: make new package, import the DDS textures, copy the values and voila! New skin.

Also, when exporting the DDS out of your graphics editing programme, make the mipmapping 10 levels, this seems to be the number that The Sims 3 is using.

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world renowned whogivesafuckologist
retired moderator
#8 Old 12th Jun 2009 at 11:13 AM
Someone will probably find this helpful...

AFface (af only)
Light: 0x40e5744b0dbfc323
Dark: 0x304910be2cb17463

YFface (yf/tf)
Light: 0x66f8047c00c00cbb
Dark: 0x366fb0326a0319ab

EFface (ef only)
Light: 0x503c527e546e8c5
Dark: 0x629e533c0262e927

AFbody (af/yf/tf/ef)
Light: 0xb4cdc208d8d51bf0
Dark: 0x185d7126c73dc404

AMface (am only)
Light: 0x6f853f0e35157e24
Dark: 0x6ca41c919ece1be0

YMface (ym/tm)
Light: 0x598325880b644f6c
Dark: 0x59a633f6fb9d4a58

EMface (em only)
Light: 0x7edd5d417bc66680
Dark: 0x21f6bac9b048b934

AMbody (am/ym/tm/em)
Light: 0x4db46d1662895fc3
Dark: 0xb1d30a51a5ed1903

I've also got the instances and what's shared for the specular/shine too if anyone's interested. And I can find the info for child and toddler quite easily as the filenames for everything I've got exported have the instances in the text.

Oh, and I can get ya'll the game's original textures if you want too - again, quite easily, as I've got 'em all stuffed into one folder so you don't have to export again.

my simblr (sometimes nsfw)

“Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.”
Panquecas, panquecas e mais panquecas.
Instructor
Original Poster
#9 Old 12th Jun 2009 at 3:11 PM
That's great, thanks!

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Scholar
#10 Old 13th Jun 2009 at 2:28 PM
Quote: Originally posted by HystericalParoxysm
I've also got the instances and what's shared for the specular/shine too if anyone's interested.


Du you know, what these letters at the end mean?

afBody_m seems to be the "basic" texture.
afbody_n looks like the normal map.
But what ist
afbody_o (contains inside of the hands, overlay for black people, so that the hands stay light?)
afbody_s (greyscale, neck black)
and
afbody_a (strange white shape)?
world renowned whogivesafuckologist
retired moderator
#11 Old 13th Jun 2009 at 2:41 PM
jonha -

M is the basic texture.
N is the normal/bump map.
O is I think an overlay - it also affects the lips on faces and I think the eyebrows as well.
S is the shine or specular.
A I have no idea - I've tried fiddling with it and while I can make it change, I can't really see what use it is.

my simblr (sometimes nsfw)

“Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.”
Panquecas, panquecas e mais panquecas.
Scholar
#12 Old 14th Jun 2009 at 9:47 AM
Thank you. Confirmed.

Changing the A texture had no effect on my PC. For testing I replaced it with diagonal stripes and nothing changed. Maybe it's ambient light for low/medium graphic settings. I Don't know.
Sir Not Appearing In This Film
#13 Old 14th Jun 2009 at 10:22 AM
I know that in the clothing files, the a is for ambiance, so prolly the same for this too..
Instructor
#14 Old 22nd Jun 2009 at 11:36 PM
HP, I'd love to have the original textures if it's not too much trouble? (Just for the faces?)
world renowned whogivesafuckologist
retired moderator
#15 Old 23rd Jun 2009 at 10:43 PM
Hey Amber, I went ahead and uploaded them here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...512#post2644512

my simblr (sometimes nsfw)

“Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.”
Panquecas, panquecas e mais panquecas.
Instructor
#16 Old 4th Jul 2009 at 6:36 AM
Quote: Originally posted by HystericalParoxysm
Hey Amber, I went ahead and uploaded them here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...512#post2644512


Thanks much!
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